Getting to Moorea

When planning a trip to Moorea, the first step is to figure out how to get to Tahiti. This is because, as mentioned above, Tahiti is the leg of the trip that’s right before Moorea. The short version of that answer is that you’ll most likely be flying to Tahiti from Los Angeles. This will be the case even if you are starting in Europe. But once you arrange your flight to Tahiti, what’s next? Well, part of that depends on your exact schedule. If you are going to stay on Tahiti itself, perhaps in one of the overwater bungalow resorts on Tahiti, then you’ll almost certainly want to take the local ferry, which leaves right out of the main marina in the capital city of Pape’ete.

However, if you are going straight to your resort on Moorea then your best bet is to fly directly there from the Tahiti Airport. If you are tempted to spend a few hours touring around Tahiti itself and then taking the ferry to Moorea, we’d say that it’s not really worth your time. Moorea itself is actually more beautiful of an island, and Pape’ete, unfortunately, is a bit grimy and not all that interesting anyway. If you’re already staying on the island, then we could see visiting, as you are already there. However, we wouldn’t say it’s worth going out of your way to visit and see.

Because you’ll almost certainly fly from Los Angeles to Tahiti, you’ll probably fly Air Tahiti Nui, which is the long-haul national carrier of French Polynesia. Once you arrive on Tahiti, you’ll change to a smaller prop plane on Air Tahiti. Even though the names are very similar, they are actually two different airlines. You can usually buy both separate tickets from an online travel agency, but you are going to want to look at the schedule closely to make sure you have enough time to change planes.

Air Tahiti schedule

Four flights a day most of the year, first flight leaving Tahiti at 7:15am and last flight leaving at 17:15 (5:15pm). Around the December holidays there can be 5 flights some days and 3 flights other days.

What you’ll find when booking, is that most, but not all, flights from Los Angeles arrive late in the evening. This means that many visitors will have about an 8-hour layover before their flight in the morning. Most people opt for a hotel room for the night. However, it needs to be noted that there are no budget hotels in the area, making a single half night of sleep on the expensive side.

The flights only take 15 minutes, and you can buy tickets right on the spot most times, when tend to cost around US$100 round-trip for adults and even less for children. If the plane doesn’t work you can always take a taxi a short distance into Pape’ete, and then take a ferry from there.

When looking into local ferries, you’ll find that there are two companies running ferries between Tahiti and Moorea, with journey times ranging from around 30 to 60 minutes, give or take depending on the weather. Some carry vehicles (mostly Moorea locals who’ve come to shop), while others only carry passengers. These ferries tend to cost about US$15 per person (each way) making them far cheaper than the flights. Also, you’ll want to note that there is a great comfort level on these series compared to an airplane.

Unfortunately, ferries don’t operate in the dark, so if your Tahiti flight lands after about 16:00 then you’ll be spending the night on the island. Because of this, you’ll want to really make sure you keep this in mind when booking flight tickets onto the island.